Saturday, March 25, 2017

Migrants, Manitobans and Mennonites: Religious Response to the Refugee Crisis

How should Manitobans
respond to the over 200 refugees that have crossed into Manitoba from the U.S.
since the start of the year? That question has been on the mind of many people
over the past few months.

Since most of these
asylum-seekers have entered Canada at Emerson, a small town of about 650
people, I found myself wondering: What are the churches in that community
doing?

I decided to try to
find out. The four churches in Emerson—Lutheran, Baptist, Catholic and
United—are very small and, it seems, served by part-time clergy or clergy who
look after two three churches in southern Manitoba.

When I called St.
Andrews United Church in Emerson, I got a message from an answering
machine indicating that the church had received lots of calls about how to help
the migrants and refugees.

It went on to say that
“none of the churches are directly involved” in helping the border-crossers,
who don’t actually spend much time in Emerson; they are quickly
transported to Winnipeg, where they are assisted by charities like Welcome
Place.

“If you are interested
in donating or offering any assistance” contact Welcome Place, the message
continued.

So I did. Marchris
Gladys, a manager at Welcome Place, told me that since January 1 almost 200
refugees and migrants had sought assistance from the organization, which
provides transitional housing and other supports and services to newcomers to
Canada. Last year, they had a total of 70 people needing assistance.

What they need most,
she said, is money for food, clothing and other necessities for the unexpected
flood of newcomers. They have a goal of $300,000; to date, about $27,000 has
been donated.

The influx of refugees
has also prompted an interesting discussion in the Mennonite community—a group
of people who once found themselves in need of safe haven in Canada.

It was started by a
Facebook post from Winnipeg’s Mennonite Heritage
Centre Archives. On February 21 the Centre’s archivist, Conrad Stoesz,
posted an image of a newspaper headline from 1922 announcing “Mennonites now free to come to Canada.”

The newspaper article
explained that an “objectionable regulation” that “discriminated” against Mennonites
had been lifted by then Prime Minister MacKenzie King.

“In June 1919, the
Canadian government banned Mennonite, Hutterite and Doukhobor immigration into
Canada due to public pressure,” Stoesz wrote, noting that banning people deemed undesirable was not a
new thing, or just an American thing.

“These German-speaking
(Russian-speaking for the Doukhobors) people who refused military participation
were considered a danger to Canada and lacked Canadian values.”

Reaction to the post
was overwhelming, with over 126,000 views and over 1,000 shares so far.

“There’s been nothing
like it before,” says Stoesz, adding that most-viewed item prior to this was
10,000 views for a post about Mennonite New Year’s cookies.

The timing of the
Trump ban and migrants coming to Manitoba contributed to the interest, he says,
adding that “many people saw the connection.”

As for why he posted the item, Stoesz says that he wanted to
“raise awareness that Mennonites have suffered prejudice in Canada because of
the language they spoke and for some of the values they held dear. Hopefully
people will then think about this past and ask themselves how that informs
their views on current situations in our world . . . The mirror of our past can
help humble our views.”

For some people, the
post and the story behind it was personal.

“The lifting of this
ban allowed my great grandparents and my grandmother to come to Canada in the
mid-1920s and to flee the devastation they experienced as a result of the
Russian Revolution,” said one commenter. “I will always be grateful, and will
remember what was offered to them and in turn pay it forward to those fleeing
war today.”

Added another: “It
seems unbelievable that at one point in history Mennonites were viewed as
evil,” she said, adding “no doubt in 100 years people will be amazed that
anyone would fear Muslims.”